A damp, foggy morning starting with the Metro to Sishane station to wander down side streets in the Beyoğlu area to Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. A terrific, light-filled modern (of course) building with interesting exhibitions.
The story of Semiha Berksoy was fascinating – born in 1910, she refused to follow convention, defying her widowed father and becoming a world-famous opera singer and artist.
Took a walk along the breezy waterfront, but it was quite chilly and not overly appealing so strolled up to Istiklal Avenue to join huge crowds, we were going against the flow! Apparently, this pedestrian street is always a sea of humanity.
Arrived at Taksim Square, which was the general area in which we had stayed 15 years ago. There was some sort of demo forming with riot polis in attendance, so we opted to keep moving.
Back at our hotel question of the day was ‘dinner’? From our hotel window we’d noticed a couple of quiet treed restaurants behind the mosque opposite, so wandered down on spec. We dined on the (allegedly) ‘world famous’ kebab at Garaf restaurant ( a menu limited to beef or chicken on flat bread) & started with the old lentil soup. A glass of something would have been nice but it was an unlicensed eatery, so tea was the go.
Breakfast in the hotel offered some highlights to start the day: a Korean girl insouciant in pink flannies and hotel slip ons, a great variety of food…but tea (long life milk) and brewed coffee both ordinary.
Once again, impressed with the European countries’ Metro using system. Our ‘home’ station is Levent and we can go pretty much everywhere using rail or tram using a ticket giving three rides per tix for 175 TL – a bit under $2 per ride with no senior discount.
There was some learning. We headed for the Blue Mosque area, which involved a train ride to Lateline/ University station, then a tram ride to Sultanahmet. Here we met our first ‘Istanbul cat’ reclining on a station massage chair.
Wandered through alley ways looking for a coffee, finally making a decision: just too much choice. T had a cappuccino, D an americano, both weak but hot, complemented by sweet treats (as if we needed refuelling!). As we departed the cafe owner engaged D in talk, proudly remembering a visit by John Howard in April many years ago, where, as a teenager, he sold post cards to the entourage.
Wandered through a bazaar near the Mosaic Museum, being touted by ticket sellers for boat tours: ‘Where are you from?’ The answer often prompted a response: ‘I love the Ozzie accent’ or ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie…Oi, Oi, Oi’
Our stroll took us through a peaceful part of the city – the Guilhane Gardens with no crowds…tulip beds, birds – Mesopotamian crows (black & grey, very handsome), rose-ringed parakeets, and grey herons roosting in the trees.
We came out on the waterfront. Old guys, seemingly arrived on motor scooters, fishing using a tiny hook and lure rather than bait, and regularly catching small fish – even sharing the occasional sprats with cats!
Istanbul is famous for its cats, looked after but not owned by the inhabitants (what cat is ever ‘owned’ by a human anyway?). As well as kiosks where passersby could put in a coin, of any currency, to donate food, there were plastic cat apartments, complete with bedding.
Opted for a two hour cruise on a small boat – about a dozen passengers. Tourists are captive ‘ATM’s: there was an exotic parrot, performing tricks, available for photographs. We just clicked our own from above deck.
We shared the top deck with a couple of Aussie blokes – childhood friends from primary school in Brisbane, one now living in Stockholm – and a miserable young man who coughed, sneezed and blew his runny nose the whole time. We were grateful for the sea breeze!
It was a terrific way to do the familiarisation tour, seeing the European skyline with towers on one side versus the lower skyline on the Asian side at about three storeys.
Being Good Friday, it seemed appropriate to go into a church, so in late afternoon we queued (short) for the Blue Mosque. With Hundreds of others, shoeless, the space is still a wonder, and we were able to eavesdrop surreptitiously on a few ‘Muslim information guides’.
Return trip on the tramway and metro was a crush (T recalled some disturbing experiences from 25 years ago on the same tram line). Not really surprising, as Istanbul’s population is, according to our Uber driver, 25 million – same as Australia.
A bit of essentials shopping: a bottle of red, milk for morning tea, Brie and leftover dolmades for dinner.
We noted that, like most European countries we have visited, there is a very stylish dress sense. The fashion now is wide leg pants(no skinnies in sight), little jackets, big (enhanced) lips, serious makeup…little sign from trips decades ago of women covered over in long brown coats, common, nor were there packs of young men hassling passing foreign women.Plenty of stylish hijabs.
The cabin crew on this leg of the journey were very quiet and hardly noticeable – but equally efficient.
Arrived in Istanbul and deplaning, immigration, ETIAS, and baggage pick up procedures. Once again all went very smoothly until we looked for transport to get to our hotel at Levent. The bus to there didn’t depart the airport for another hour and a quarter so we were persuaded to take a bus to Taksim from where we could catch the Metro. It wasn’t, of course, quite that simple. After about an hour we arrived at Taksim in the rain and the Metro nowhere to be seen. Fortuitously an Uber driver turned up at that moment and we had a rather interesting discussion about how much it would cost us to get to our hotel. In the end he said he would do it for €17 and we said ‘let’s go’. He was was a card. Tried to teach us how to speak a number of words in Turkish all of which we failed but it was a bit like driving in a demolition derby, but no crashes! We joked about the state of the world – at one stage seeing the Trump Towers.
Thought he was busy elsewhere!
Arrived at the hotel, through security screening, and apparently looking lost in the lobby, were taken in hand by a delightful young lady who arranged our room for us, explained everything and gave us a few more words in Turkish, particularly how to say thank you, and we settled in.
D then discovered that he’d neglected to pack enough undies, so part of our stretching walk was to a nearby shopping mall – T’s least favourite activity. There were two close by – the up market one, and the cheap one. We went into both – through security screening. Wandered around the cheap mall (actually not really cheap) and successfully accomplished mission, along with some snacks and beers. Obviously recognised, as we were waved through the security screening on return.
Days one and day two over. The trip proper has started, hopefully after a long sleep.
Taxi booked for 1230, so plenty of time to repack suitcases, clean floors, repack suitcases, scrub loos, repack….
D hadn’t received confirmation of the taxi booking so rang at 1130. All good – are you ready to go now? Yes. So a terrific ride from Harish (Harry) who was very chatty and ultra proud of his pristine taxi, meant that we could now wait at Canberra airport instead. Flight was uneventful – and we arrived with plenty of time to wait as the check in didn’t start for another three hours. Smooth when it happened – farewelled by the pandas, but not sure of the significance.
As we waited to board a woman nudged her way into the side of the queue: good technique – nonchalantly and gradually sneaking a few more positions along. But karma struck – when she got to the front of the line she was told to join a different one, and advised she ‘d be boarding last!
Flight to Singapore was comfortable – about eight hours then a couple of hours on the ground for refuelling. Just one complaint. Although we were travelling at night – the plane having left at about 10:30 pm – it was very noisy and in particular the cabin staff chatted and rattled cutlery pretty much the whole flight. Otherwise, they were actually terrific and helpful. Next leg was 11 hours to Istanbul.
Travels with and without Gloria 